Helping one of my heroes.

Sometimes things come up where you have to drop everything and work on it. This is one of those times.

Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo is one of my idols. I was introduced to him (as I am sure others were) via the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Since I was from a small town, it was hard to learn about any comic characters. Luckily, my mother took me to the store (Powerhouse Comics) in Green Bay almost every single time we went for groceries. Comics were a sedative to me... She gave them to me, and I was content. There are comics that I would definitely suggest to kids: Usagi Yojimbo is one of them.

Back to Stan. His wife has been ill, and CAPS  (Comic Art Professional Society) had started collecting artist work for an auction to help Stan and his wife. Here is a link to the website concerning the auction. 

I could explain in my own words, but I will just pass on what Stan posted on his Facebook page:

Thank you, everybody. I had been gone from FB since yesterday and did not realize that CAPS had started the solicitation for art auction donations to help with Sharon's care. 

A bit of background with what this is all about: In 2004, Sharon woke up one morning and said, "I can't hear anything out of my left ear." It was traced back to a meningioma brain tumor. It is benign, but large and inoperable. There was no hope of it getting smaller. The most we could hope for was that it would not grow larger. She underwent radiation therapy, and that seemed to control it. She went in for regular MRIs, and no growth was detected.

However, it started growing in 2010, and very aggressively. She has facial paralysis on the left side (everything happens on the left side). The paralysis includes her throat, vocal chords, and it has even deteriorated her neck bones. She had lost almost 40% of her body weight in a year. She is undergoing chemotherapy. Doctors don't see any end in sight for this. There are complications because of the tumor, medications, or just coincidence--diabetes, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, compromised immune system. She has a tracheostomy tube for breathing and a G-tube connected to her stomach for a liquid diet. She can take nothing through her mouth. She is bed-bound, but we try to give her daily physical therapy--walking a couple hundred feet with a walker and/or sitting in a wheelchair.

She had been in the hospital and nurse care from April to September, but we are glad she is home. She requires 24 hour care, so daughter Hannah and her family moved in with us. This includes 18 month old grandson Leo, and another grandchild due in February/early March.

A lot of you do know Sharon, as she had been a fixture at my booth at San Diego and many other conventions. Thank you all for your help, good thoughts, and prayers. 

So when I heard of the call for artists to submit an original piece to help Stan out, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to make something. I have been doing some rough sketches on my tablet, and have a rough done. The auction will be in early 2014, so I will have a little time to finish it... but here is the rough, done in Sketchbook Pro:

Rough Usagi Yojimbo

Very rough, yes... It is Usagi, with smoke around him.possibly with some allusions to architecture behind him.  I think I will do it in Sumi with splashes of color. Need to do a little color research first, but I will post here when I have the final piece done. 

If anyone wants to help out or donate, please click the link above for information. 

Back to the drawing board (Literally).

Today I listened to a concert by the band fun. (and am thinking of going to see them in concert... sound really good!)... anyhoo, drew something that will make it into the portfolio hopefully. I took these pix with my new phone, and used a program called "Pic Stitch".

Steps 1 and 2

Still not finished, but a decent start.

These are characters that I made, and showed them earlier on the blog... but that one was in watercolor. Because this was black and white, and also because I couldn't paint the textures, I made the dog a lot furrier... there were a few other changes from this one:

original colored characters

...And this is the link to NPR's fun. in concert that I was listening to. Love it...sometimes seems like you are listening to a soundtrack to a musical, then a sad song from a movie, and then others seem like you are at the carnival, and then some just plain rock.

That's all she wrote!

16 of the 17 pieces done for my October Art-a-Thon.

Hey everyone, thank you for watching my blog this past month. I am almost at 4k views, so I know many stopped by to check it out. Here is the finished art (sans Rich's Scary Fairy piece...which is already in his hands):

I am now going on to prepping for a few conferences in the spring. Attending both SCBWI conferences in Austin (February) and Houston (April).

Halloween #12: Eliot and Yoda

Teresa Conley requested that I do an illustration of her grandson, Eliot... It turns out his parents are Star Wars fans (I like them already), and Eliot dressed up as Yoda last year for Halloween. He also makes this great face that they labeled "The Stinkface"... So I put Eliot in the role of a Jedi in training, doing his best Stinkface. I originally intended to do this in color, but I really liked the quality of the inks, and the nice lines I was getting, using a mix of pen/brush. I decided to add just a touch of an ink wash for some values.

Here is Eliot's original Stinkface:




Brush/pen and Ink on Bristol

Halloween #9: Pinhead

My old high school classmate, Melissa, requested Hellraiser's Pinhead as an infant.

Ink on w/c paper 

Halloween #8: Self-portrait as a Vampire

One of my former teacher co-workers, Ms. (Sarah) Moses requested myself as a vampire.... some might say this is an improvement :/

Inks on Bristol

Halloween #2: Wolfman's got Nards!

My friend Rob enjoys the movie Monster Squad. He wanted the Wolfman who gets kicked in the nards.

Don't know what nards are? Click on the video below to see the scene from Monster Squad:

Inks on Bristol.